
“Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.”
12.
Meditations Divine and Moral (1664)
Lift Me UP! Service With A Smile (2005)
“Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.”
12.
Meditations Divine and Moral (1664)
Conversation: Elon Musk on Wired Science (2007)
And he pressed the silver spoon against the blade. Will, holding the knife, felt only the slightest resistance as the tip of the spoon's handle fell to the table, cut clean off.
"The other edge," the old man went on, "is more subtle still. With it you can cut an opening out of this world altogether. Try it now. Do as I say — you are the bearer. You have to know. No one can teach you but me, and I have not much time left. Stand up and listen."
Source: His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997), Ch. 8 : The Tower of the Angels
Remarks about the first White House Science Fair in 2010. “It’s a prototype!” Tune in for President Obama’s Last Science Fair, April 13th https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxEch5nsNkk (quote from video published on April 12, 2016)
2016
“Being on the edge isn’t as safe, but the view is better.”
“He was always smoothing and polishing himself, and in the end he became blunt before he was sharp.”
L 70
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook L (1793-1796)